Microsoft has been pushing hard in the United States to get corporations and individual users to abandon Windows XP and move to more modern versions like Windows 7 and Windows 8. On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will deliver its last Windows XP security update, and that also happens to be the day that Microsoft hopes to have as many companies and individual users rid themselves of Windows XP altogether.

By April 8, 2014, estimates are that about 10% of all computers in the U.S. will still be running Windows XP. As high as that number sounds, it's only a tiny fraction of the number of computers in China that will still be running Windows XP when April 8 rolls around. In China, roughly 65% of all computers are expected to still be on Windows XP when April 8, 2014 rolls around.

Analytics firm Net Applications estimated that 37.2% of personal computers around the world ran Windows XP last month. Estimates from Microsoft showing 1.4 billion Windows computers around the globe, which would mean about 570 million PCs globally still run Windows XP. Data shows that 16.4% of all personal computers were running Windows XP in the U.S. during the month of July. In China, 72.1% of all computers relied on XP.

Opinions vary on why Windows XP is still so widely used by individuals and corporations. Some believe that XP is still so widely used because businesses continue to run custom or niche applications that would be prohibitively expensive to upgrade. Individuals running Windows XP may also have a computer that is working just fine on Windows XP for mundane duties such as email, internet browsing, and image viewing.